The radiant light, unhindered and inconceivable, eradicates suffering and brings realization of joy; the excellent Name, perfectly embodying all practices, eliminates obstacles and dispels doubt. This is the teaching and practice for our latter age; devote yourself solely to it. It is eye and limb in this defiled world; do not fail to endeavor in it. Accepting and living the supreme, universal Vow, then, abandon the defiled and aspire for the pure. Reverently embracing the Tathagata's teaching, respond in gratitude to his benevolence and be thankful for his compassion.

~ Shinran Shonin, Passages on the Pure Land Way

Monday, September 30, 2013

Walking with Rennyo: Thought and Voice are One

(4) Thought and Voice are One

Someone
told Rennyo that he did not understand Honen Shonin’s words, Thought and Voice
are One. Rennyo answered, “Whatever is mental will cast an external form: If
one believes that shinjin’s essence is namuamidabutsu, we have an example of
the singularity of thought and voice.”

Zuiken
Inagaki Sensei, a beloved priest in the Hongwanji and a favorite teacher of
mine, once wrote the following in his classic essay “On Faith”:

Apart from the
all power working of namuamidabutsu, there is no faith, no Nembutsu and no
peace of mind. We have only to hear Amida's living voice, 'namuamidabutsu', in
which our birth, even our faith is accomplished. It calls us unceasingly. We
hear the compassionate voice of the Buddha; we hear the Vow Power of the
inconceivable wisdom of the Buddha. How grateful I am for the Vow in which
Amida resolved, "If sentient beings are not born in my Land, may I not
attain Enlightenment." This is my lifeline.

In
the teaching of Jodo Shinshu, everything goes back to the Primal Vow. Without
Amida’s promise of enlightenment, as Zuiken Sensei states, there would be no
shinjin and no nembutsu. And without these, how could we poor miserable beings,
adrift in the sea of samsara, ever know true peace of mind? For us, to hear
that the Vow assuredly saves us is the most profound joy we can ever experience
in this world. This is the joy of Dharma that motivated Master Rennyo to spread
the teachings of the Founder throughout Japan. In this dark, sad world of Saha,
this is the only everlasting joy that we can know.

Master
Shinran states the following in his Notes on “Essentials of
Faith Alone” (CWS, p. 468):

Here, in Amida's
Primal Vow, even includes "few" in contrast to "many,"
teaching us that sentient beings who say the Name as few as ten times will
without fail attain birth. Know that "thinking" and
"voicing" have the same meaning; no voicing exists separate from
thinking, and no thinking separate from voicing.

I
believe the Venerable Master wrote this passage in order to prevent us from
becoming attached to our thoughts or words, as if they could
result in our ultimate liberation. Those who suppose, “I believe in the
Buddha, and therefore I will be born in the Pure Land” are still operating in
the realm of calculation, depending on their own power of mindfulness. Such human logic is perfectly valid in the conventional world,
but it cannot be applied to the “marvelously mysterious” working of the Primal
Vow. Another mistake is made when people think, “I say the nembutsu, and
therefore I will be born in the Pure Land.” Both of these attitudes lead to
self-powered attachment to mindfulness or recitation as the cause of birth. However,
the reality is that we cannot be saved by any action, whether mental or
physical, on our part. By listening carefully to the Primal Vow, we realize
that in fact nothing we can possibly do will be sufficient to resolve our grave
karmic problem. At that point, all that is left is to give everything up to the
loving care of Namu-amida-butsu. If we possess a store of good from the past,
then our self-power reasoning, our calculations, our doubts will all melt away in
the bright sun of Amida’s wisdom, and we will be grasped, never to be
abandoned. This is the realm of “true and real shinjin” that both Master
Shinran and Master Rennyo were able to enter, and which we may enter too.

Again,
Zuiken Sensei explains this aspect of true shinjin very well in the following
quotation from his book The Sound of
Ocean Waves of the Primal Vow:

What you call
“faith” (shin), is the trust you owe
to the compassion of the Tathagata, to trust to the utmost extent. Therefore, this
“faith” is the virtue of faith that does not attach to faith.

Master
Rennyo likewise wanted to keep us from making the mistake of thinking that the
nembutsu is a practice that we do in order to be born in the Pure Land, or that
shinjin is something we can generate through our own efforts. Indeed, we are
reminded time and time again that we are not even capable of arousing the kind
of pure faith that leads to nirvana. This is why, the Venerable Master tells us,
“Amida made verbal utterance the essence of the Primal Vow” (CWS, p. 468). From
sentient beings such as ourselves who are mired in delusion and distracted by suffering,
any depth of faith, however shallow, would be miraculous. How wonderful it is,
then, when such beings as we are made to possess the shinjin of the Primal Vow,
which is the supreme, diamond-like faith of the
Mahayana! Such a marvelous state of affairs can only come about through the
Vow-power. Amida Buddha, recognizing that true and real shinjin could not be
expected from us, accomplished the practice and realized the faith that would
result in our salvation. For this reason, when pursuing the True Pure Land Way, you must not attempt to establish shinjin by your own power. Remember that whatever self-willed
conviction (jiriki no shin) you manage to sustain will be just that—a construct, created by your
foolish mind. Instead, listen to the wonderful Dharma, say the nembutsu, trust in the power of the Vow, and leave everything else
to Amida. He fulfilled the requirements for your Pure Land birth long ago, and
now waits to bestow the virtue of His enlightenment on you. This is the
highest, most sublime truth of Buddhism, the thing most difficult to hear and
accept in the entire world.

Let
us then recite the nembutsu while rejoicing in shinjin, mindful that it is a generous gift from our beloved Parent of great compassion.